VANCOUVER, Wash. — Clark County is in the 'high risk' category for COVID-19 activity level. The level is determined by calculating the number of new cases per 100,000 residents in the county over 14 days.
Anything above 75 cases per 100,000 is considered high activity in Washington state.
In Clark County, health officials are seeing a rate of 123.85 cases per 100,000. That's up from 115.05 the previous week and 100.1 the week before that.
Let's break it down in terms of actual case numbers over the last four weeks:
- Sept. 27 to Oct. 3 = 240 confirmed cases
- Oct. 4 to Oct. 10 = 297 confirmed cases
- Oct. 11 to Oct. 17 = 289 confirmed cases
- Oct. 18 to Oct. 24 = 329 confirmed cases
That's an average of 288 positive cases per week. The county said 240 of the current cases are considered active.
The largest group testing positive is comprised of residents in their 20s and 30s. 905 people in their 20s have tested positive and 806 people in their 30s have tested positive. That's 1,711 positive cases compared to those in their 50s and older with just 1,501 positive cases.
Hospitalizations in Clark County are starting to rise as well. Currently, just over 5% of available hospital beds set aside for COVID-19 patients are in use. Clark County Public Health's Dr. Alan Melnick said they like to see that number below 10%.
The county's website lists 36 people as currently being hospitalized for COVID-19.
Dr. Lawrence Neville, PeaceHealth Columbia Network's chief operating officer, said the number of hospitalizations for COVID patients "has risen essentially to the peak that it was earlier on in the pandemic. We reached a low point in July and I think we were all hoping that we would stay at that low point, but unfortunately it is appearing to climb again. It has reached levels that we haven't seen since early in the pandemic."
PeaceHealth has 16 beds set aside to be used only by COVID-19 patients and seven ICU beds. Their website currently says 20 of those beds are being used.
Neville said that if the need arises they are fully prepared to create more beds for COVID-19 patients and increase staffing to meet the need.